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This was the start of a 2-week stint on the A338 at Cholderton for WCC Highways. Our task was to remove and cut back 40 ash trees which had grown to 100 feet and which were all dying with Ash Dieback. Because of this disease, the trees were dangerous and had to be removed.
Here’s a link to the Woodland Trust’s page on Ash Dieback.
Here our task was to remove a large group of mature leylandii close to main high voltage lines. This needed a power shutdown to be able to work safely. The work had taken three months’ planning due to a nursing home being on the same powerline and for which a generator was needed to maintain power to the home.
The work was made easier with the new 26’ MEWP. For more info on both our MEWPs see the details on our website here.
We spent a week dismantling decaying beech trees in Bath. They were leaning over a footpath and, having recently been surveyed, there was no choice but to dismantle and remove them and plant replacements. The timber will be used for firewood. We needed a team of 2 climbers, a groundsman with tractor and a 30-ton winch on the last day to fell the stems.
But, as you’ll see from the last three pictures below, the weather wasn’t always kind to us during the week!
A recent tree survey showed that a large conifer growing close to a substantial property was too near for safety. We therefore dismantled it and removed all the timber to be reprocessed for biomass to feed a power station.
Here’s a picture of young Lukas dismantling the first of many 60-foot sycamore trees for St Mary’s Hospital in Bristol.
The project necessitated the trees being dismantled for the regeneration of the site into student accommodation.
For details of our other tree surgery work please see here
A few images from a couple of dismantle jobs this week with Steve and Justin aloft.
A 60-foot Eucalyptus tree was overhanging a very old stone wall at Rowde, near Devizes.
Then there’s a conifer coming down in Potterne.
Here’s a 60-second video of one of a pair of time trees coming down in Bishops Cannings at the beginning of November. The trees were healthy in themselves but had grown to a height of 100 feet. The roots were undermining the buildings which were planned for a change of use in the near future so needed to be removed.
Lime trees are one of the most iconic British trees forming lined avenues on grand houses and estates. There is even a circle of trees planted in Pewsey, Wiltshire that are still alive and healthy today, designed so that duellers could get some privacy from onlookers when in action!
The action is all in the last few seconds!
For details of our tree surgery work please see here and for our tree surveys, here
A few more pics of the roadside tree works in the north of the county We’ve been cutting back the roadside willows in Marston Meysey – clearing the willow trees that have become too large and are hanging onto the roadway
Marston Meysey is 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Cricklade on the county boundary with Gloucestershire.
Following recent call-outs due to high winds, we were back to work at Drew’s Pond – just south of Devizes – for health and safety works to the trees near and overhanging footpaths.
Drew’s Pond is a small community broadleaved coppiced managed woodland with plenty of paths and good bird and butterfly habitats.
We had to dismantle this veteran beech tree in December, following a survey using a Picus test…
The tree, Fagus sylvatica purperea, had a diameter 2150mm, an 8m circumference and was 18m tall
We used Picus Sonic Tomograph technology; this is a specialised electronic instrument which can ‘look’ internally into a branch or tree trunk and display a computer-generated image of its condition. It achieves this by measuring the speed that sound travels through the wood in a number of different positions and directions. Sound travels fastest through solid wood. Decayed wood will slow its path. By measuring the speed that sound takes to pass through a tree, an idea of its condition can be obtained. In this case, the Tomograph showed a central cavity surrounded by advanced and early decay and the report’s conclusion was to fell the tree as soon as practically possible, and for the work to be carried out by a fully-qualified and insured tree surgeon to BS3998 (tree work) which of course we are!
You’ll see from the pictures below that there is very little viable timber at the base. What there was, was cut up for the client’s use.
For more information about our tree surveys, please see here: https://www.conservation-contractors.co.uk/services/tree-surveys/ or if you are concerned about one of your trees and think a Picus test would be sensible, please email William.
